The writings of the noted Trappist monk Thomas Merton will be celebrated with the annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture this coming Wednesday, February 29 at Bellarmine University.

In “Merton, Then and Now,” Rosanne Haggerty will discuss Merton’s writings on race in the context of homelessness in America. As the founder of Common Ground Community, a nonprofit organization that over the past 20 years has become the preeminent supportive housing provider in the country and an innovative developer of strategic solutions for the problem of homelessness, Haggerty has overseen the transformation of derelict buildings in Times Square and other neighborhoods into vibrant and supportive residences in which formerly homeless tenants rebuild their lives; a more recent offshoot, Community Solutions, expands the work nationally.

Haggerty is a 2001 recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

The lecture begins at 7:00 P.M. in Frazier Hall (map at http://lou.ly/bumap) and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dr. Paul Pearson, director of the Thomas Merton Center, at pmpearson@bellarmine.edu.